Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Train Travel

Good Thursday Morning to you all. Today's picture is from 1910 and it shows Mount Washington Railway trains at a Depot in White Mountains, New Hampshire. I love clothing and style of the people of this time period.

After looking at the pictures this week, I have decided that something important has definitely been lost since we no longer travel by train powered by Live Steam. The best train I have been on is the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge. It is amazing. If you have never ridden it, you have to put it on your list of things to do. Here is a nice video of it. I love the sites and sounds of the old train, and when you are there in person, the smells.

17 comments:

There appears to be at least 4 engines on the right side of this photo and might be more. It looks like there is another train on the left side. Boy, what a busy depot.I wonder if the onees on the right side are shuttle trains, they seem to only have one car to an engine.

In yesterday photo, did any one noticed that the water was delivered to the train by a "stand pipe" between two sets of tracks. Instead of the direct swing pipe you normally see at water tanks. I suppose it was set up to be able to service 2 engine on the opposite set of tracks

Lots of activity.The clothes are interesting. People used to dress up to travel or even to go to town.I wonder how many separate trains there are, how many engines per train? I assume the White Mountains are fairly steep.

I remember taking the train to the big city with my mother. She was pleased that the engine was one of the new diesels. When I asked 'why', she replied that steam was dirty. You were filthy with smuts & cinders when you finished your journey.

What a nice picture. Snapshot in time of people running to catch the train, I love it. Mount Washington and the White mountains are a beautiful area. The main business is tourism so I'm thinking that most of the people in todays picture are out for a scenic trip. The train cuts through Franconia Notch and probably passed right under the Old Man of the Mountains. Up until about the 1870's the main mode of travel to this area was by stage coach. It was a big deal when they cut tracks through the White Mountains, Presidential Range. Also a big deal when folks travelled from Ma. to NH. on vacation. I looked up old newspapers from my hometown and there used to be a section in the paper where they wrote about what people were up to about town. So much of it were blurbs like, "Mrs Getrude Smith recently came back from a wonderful 4 week vacation in the White Mountains". Funny how the paper would announce when people were leaving on vacation and when they got back all was ok and no one dared break into Mrs Gertrude Smith's house. I think this RR line became what is now the Conway Scenic Railway, I'm not sure. Mid Oct is the best time, the colors are so vibrant that you just stare out the window. Mesmorizing.

This picture is interesting. Almost all of the rushing passengers are women! (Sort of feeds a stereotype) I remember a train ride my family took from Portland Oregon to Souix Falls, South Dakota about 1960. I am pretty sure it was a steam engine train. I honestly don't remember what the outside of the train looked like. I do remember being terrified to go from car to car, particularly when I got one of my fingers crushed in the door.

Durango Silverton is definitely great! The same narrow gage line a bit further to the east is the Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gage. That's also a great ride. I believe those are the only 2 portions of that line that remain...

The White River run from Flippin to Calico Rock in Arkansas was a great ride too. The White River valley was very scenic. This run has been discontinued. Hope the Colorado and New Mexico runs survive a while longer.

In regards to Jim's question, This is just a guess on my part but I think the stacks are so large and funnel shaped so that you don't cause alot of backpressure which may damage the boiler. Just a guess, I'll bet Tex Avery knows. Mary, It's not a sterotype if it's true, LOL. Most of the woman I know are usually late. I have a funny feeling I'm in trouble now huh.

I have been enjoying this site for a long time now and never commented. It is a treat every day. I am a geologist and took the Durango Silverton on a break during the University of Houston field camp. We made each other promise to simply enjoy the trip and not try to identify the rock formations we were passing. We tried but failed, lol. It was such a memorable experience.

That has to be one of the best action photos of a railway station that I've seen. It captures perfectly the last minute rush - I can hear the steam hissing, and the station master's whistle hurrying everyone up.

Perhaps the locomotives and carriages were all hooked up together, and so many locos were needed to climb steep grades.

I live in Rutland Vermont and have a general knowledge of the Mt. Washington scenario. The old man in the mountain was quite striking when you drove past it on the way south through that summer only road they have! The actual train to the summit is a special use train only for travel to the summit and that is about the extent of my train knowledge. The main claim to fame for the area is the convergence of 3 different weather systems at the top of Mt. Washington! This even though the elevation is rather mild(6,000+)? causes the formation of the worlds fastest recorded winds!A lot of people have lost their lives because of the rapidly changeable weather atop the summit! I am sure the facts are different from what I have stated but this is from the top of my head, Have a good day.

Those little steam engines each push 1 car up the Mt Washington cog railway. They have a large cog gear underneath that meshes with a slotted metal track in the middle of the regular track. The slope of the track is so steep that the cog system has to be used to get the train up the track. Until just recently, they were all steam powered, but as elsewhere, diesel has stuck its ugly snout in the door, and now only a few of the old steamers are left running. A great loss in my opinion, as the diesels lack any character whatsoever. Every car that goes to the top of Mt Washington still has its own engine, though. Even the diesels couldn't change that.

The large smoke stacks were due to the fact that it was necessary to actually put a mesh screen in the stack to keep burning cinders from flying out. This was more of a problem with wood burning locomotives. Coal burning locomotives still had a screen in the small, skinny smoke stacks, but it didn't need to be as large. On oil burning locomotives, the problem is non-existent.

About Me

I grew up in West Texas, and could not wait to get away. I got away, and went to the University of Texas, and then on to Stanford. I saw the world, and decided what I really wanted was to be in West Texas. So here I am, right back where I started. I had it all, and found it was not that great.

I have been an avid collector of old photographs and documents for over 30
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over the years. Some came from old family albums, some from material I bought at
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images, including the US Library of Congress, and the National Archives. We
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